Communications regulator ComReg has said the last three months of 2006 saw the fastest growth in broadband subscriptions since their launch.
But its latest quarterly report said what it called the lack of 'robust and efficient' local loop unbundling (LLU) processes from Eircom was continuing to hamper investment. LLU is the opening up of Eircom's residential network to rivals.
ComReg said 19,500 local loops were unbundled in the final quarter of last year, a drop of 2% from Q3.
80,600 broadband subscriptions were added in Q4. DSL accounts for 73% of all broadband subscriptions, while other platforms such as cable or wireless now have 27%.
ComReg estimates that broadband penetration at the end of the year was 12.2%, up from 10.4% in September, but still behind the EU-25 average of 15.6%.
In the mobile market, the figures show Vodafone dropping slightly to a 47.2% share of subscribers, with O2 down to 35.4% and Meteor climbing to 17.4%.
Monthly average revenue per user for mobile companies fell by 5% from Q3 to €44.80 and has dropped 6% over the year, but is still the highest in the EU.
